SENSING THE NEWS: CONFERENCE PARTICIPANTS

Speakers

Jim Andrews: Jim is an artist, writer, visual and sound poet, programmer and mathematician. He founded the webartery.com list, a forum for the discussion of poetics of web/net art. He divides his time between Victoria, BC, Seattle and Toronto. <Website: http://vispo.com>

Russell Bellamy: CEO and president of Telegensis. Focused on emerging, interactive television. Russell applies his company's spectrum of technologies to create new business models for interactive content. His startup company, Bellamy Productions, was the first company to stream "live" 360-degree video worldwide. <Website: http://www.satx.rr.com/bp/newsite/temp.html>

Laurence Bricker: Co-founder / Creative Director - Popular Front Interactive Laurence is a leader in the new media industry, providing interactive designs for a broad array of clients. His 12 years in the digital interactive media environment provides both creative and strategic perspective to experience design. His background in filmmaking gives Popular Front's work a media sensibility. His commitment to the integration of strategy, technology, and creativity has resulted in a number of industry awards for Popular Front. < Website: http://www.popularfront.com >

Jamason Chen: Post-workshop Documentarian Jamason Chen is a photographer, videographer, and multi-media consultant who was born in Shanghai and grew-up during the Cultural Revolution in China. His professional career spans nearly twenty years working as a photojournalist as well as in the motion picture and broadcasting industry and as a multi-media consultant. In 1999, Chen was honored by Who's Who in Chinese Photography, which nominated him as an outstanding photographer and included his work in its publication. His photographs and articles have appeared in numerous Asian publications. Since 1998, Chen has been based in Minneapolis where he works as a multi-media consultant and photographer at UM's School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Christina Fiebich: PhD candidate at the University of Minnesota. Her research focuses on processes and effects of new media. She works as research director for New Directions for News, a think tank and research institute that fosters innovation in the news media.

Susannah Gardner: Research director, Annenberg Online Journalism and Communication Program, University of Southern California. Senior editor for the Online Journalism Review. Adjunct professor, USC School of Journalism. Susannah's research is conducted in conjuction with USC's Integrated Media Systems Center in the areas of dynamically produced news and 360-degree video. She is heavily involved in establishing a converged curriculum for all incoming journalism students. Formerly, Susannah was multimedia director at latimes.com <Website: http://imsc.usc.edu/>

Jeff Gralnick: Jeff was in broadcast news for 43 years until electing semi-retirement in 2001. His background includes 24 years at ABC News as a news executive. While there he oversaw the launch of abcnews.com. Currently he is doing internet and media consulting for a number of organizations including the University of Southern California Integrated Media Systems Center. <Website: http://imsc.usc.edu/>

Julie Jones: From shooting news in the four corners region of the American Southwest to covering environmental stories on the eastern coast of Kenya, Julie's 19 years as a television photojournalist has been rick in experiences, opportunities and awards. In 2002, Julie began work at KNXV-TV, the ABC affiliate in Phoenix, as a special projects producer and photojournalist. Julie has a masters from Arizona State University. <Website: http://www.public.asu.edu/%7Ejonesz/FSC/Video%20linearities%20project.htm>

Regina McCombs: Multimedia reporter - startribune.com Startribune.com is the online portion of the Star Tribune, Minneapolis-St. Paul. Regina arrived there after 13 years as a television photographer and producer at KARE-TV, the NBC affiliate in the Twin Cities. As a multimedia reporter, she does a little bit of lots of things - filing news stories from the field, shooting video, stills, recording audio, creating slide shows, and training staff in creating multimedia for the Web. Regina has also taught classes in online journalism and TV news at the University of Minnesota, where she's plugging away on her master's degree. < Website: http://startribune.com/ >

Paul Morin: Paul is a visualization specialist at the University of Minnesota Deprtment of Geology and Geophysics, and the Media Union at the University of Michigan. His specialty is visualization used in geosciences research and education. He has produced numerous visualizations for textbooks, CNN and Encyclopedia Brittanica. Current projects include the use of visualizations int he classroom through sub-$10,000 virtual reality systems and the real-time production of 3D space weather visualizations. <Website: http://geowall.geo.lsa.umich.edu/>

Loren Omoto: Online news editor at startribune.com, the dominant news Web site in Minnesota. His background includes jobs in radio, television and print journalism. He worked as a reporter, engineer and anchor for radio stations in Michigan, as well as at Minnesota Public Radio, where he was "Morning Edition" anchor for six years and news director for five years. He also appeared in independent video productions and on KTCA-TV and KTCI-TV in the Twin Cities. < Website: http://startribune.com/ >

Rex Sorgatz: Multimedia Director - Internet Broadcasting Systems Rex manages all broadband, graphics-rich, interactive, and platform-specific content for a network of 50+ television station websites, which includes all Hearst, McGraw-Hill, Washington Post, and NBC O&O stations. He wages personal debates with himself over whether he's a designer, a programmer, or a journalist, and then settles it by saying these are anachronisms anyway. In his spare time, he tells the story of the Internet as it happens at Fimoculous.com. < Website: http://www.ibsys.com/ >

Nora Paul: Director - Institute for New Media Studies, University of Minnesota From 1991-2000 Nora was faculty at the Poynter Institute where she led programs in computer-assisted research and new media leadership. Before Poynter she was the Editor, Information Services at the Miami Herald from 1979-1991. Nora is the author of Computer Assisted Research. She was interim director of journalism think tank New Directions for News after its move to UM. She is on the board of the Online News Association and the American Press Institute's New Media Initiative. She got her first modem in 1978 and has been accessing, studying, and explaining the electronic delivery of information ever since. < Website: http://www.inms.umn.edu/ >

Deborah Potter: Executive Director - NewsLab NewsLab is a non-profit television news center in Washington, DC, focused on research and training. NewsLab works with local stations to develop new ways of telling complex or non-visual stories. Deborah spent 16 years as a network correspondent for CBS News and CNN, where she covered the White House, State Department, Congress, national politics and the environment. From 1995 to 1998, she taught journalism at The Poynter Institute, and also hosted the PBS program "In the Prime." < Website: http://www.newslab.org >

Participants:

Dorian Benkoil: Having run the abcnews.com newsroom and overseen its "back of the book" sections, Benkoil currently covers sales support and business development for the site. Previously, he was foreign editor and oversaw abcnews.com's coverage of Kosovo, for which the site won a breaking news award from the Society of Professional Journalists. Benkoil was a correspondent for the Associated Press and Newsweek. He has covered stories in Asia and also reported extensively from Washington, DC. Fluent in Japanese, he has appeared frequently on television and radio in Japan. <Website: http://abcnews.go.com/>

Donald Brazeal: Assistant professor at the University of Minnesota's School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Founding editor and publisher for The Washington Post's electronic subsidiary (now called Washingtonpost.com). 20 years of experience as a reporter, editor and publisher of newspapers, large and small, including The Washington Post and Kansas City Star. Donald recently earned his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland. His research interests include new media and technological innovation in media. <Website: http://sjmc.umn.edu/>

Gregory Daigle is the President of Jet Flyer LLC, a consulting firm providing expertise in content development for digital home gateway technologies. Greg has eighteen years of experience as a design manager for the software and product industries. Experiences include founder of a multimedia firm garnering scores of national and international awards, Associate Professor of Design, University Administrator and Research Manager at the leading office furniture design studio in the country. He has authored papers and articles on human factors, design and design management, developed products for Cray Research and managed gallery exhibits at Cranbrook and the Walker Art Center.

Howard Finberg: Managing director of Finberg-Gentry, the Digital Futurist Consultancy, which helps the media industry, newspapers and emerging companies with online strategies, content and reveue development, and publishing technologies. Howard is the presidential scholar at the Poynter Institute where he examines the impact of new technology on journalism. He is also a senior fellow at the American Press Institute's media center where he helps teh center develop new training programs and services. <Website: http://www.digitalfuturist.com/>

Paul Grabowicz: Assistant dean, adjunct professor, director of the new media program at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Contributing editor at the Online Journalism Review. He contributes to the e-media tidbits group weblog and is co-author of California, Inc., a book about how the entrepreneurial spirit shaped the politics, culture and economy of California. A journalist for 27 years, he spent most of his career as the investigative reporter at the Oakland Tribune. <Website: http://journalism.berkeley.edu/>

Sue Johnson: Founding Partner - Picture Projects Sue worked as a documentary photographer before founding Picture Projects with Alison Cornyn in 1995. Picture Projects has worked with photographers, journalists, radio producers and artists to create award-winning online documentaries. 360degrees.org explores first person stories from inside the criminal justice system. The project has been exhibited at several film festivals including Sundance and the International Documentary Festival in Amsterdam. 360degrees.org recently won the Online News Association's Award for Most Creative Use of the Medium. akaKurdistan.com, produced in collaboration with photographer Susan Meiselas, is an online archive of images and stories that collect and preserve the history of the Kurdish people. Other projects include RE: Vietnam ‹ Stories Since the War (www.stories.org), and Farewell to Bosnia with photographer Gilles Peress. Sue has taught photography and new media at Harvard University and City College and has lectured on digital documentaries in Mexico, Sweden, Holland, and throughout New York City. < Website: http://www.picture-projects.org >

Bill Kruskop: Bill has been a photojournalist at WCCO-TV in Minneapolis for over 17 years. The last 10 years he has worked witht he Dimension unit at the station, shooting, editing and helping produce longer format stories. The unit does everything from investigative to feature stories and prides itself on developing and using innovative storytelling techniques.<Website: http://www.wcco.com/>

Beth Pearlman: Beth is director of news for IBS (Internet Broadcasting Systems). Beth came to IBS two years ago from WCCO-TV where she was executive producer of Dimension, in charge of long-form and investigative news and special projects. Before that, Beth was producer of the 6 pm news, Dimension producer, and executive producer of Moore on Sunday. Beth did the "reverse commute" in the TV world. She was a field producer for the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather in Washington, DC, and worked on special reports for CBS News in New York before moving to Minneapolis. < Website: http://www.ibsys.com/ >

Dale Peskin: Executive Director - New Directions for News Prior to joining NDN, Dale was a vice president of Belo, the Dallas-based media company, where he launched the company's initiatives in new media and media convergence. At Belo, Peskin served as editor of Dallasnews.com and as an assistant managing editor of The Dallas Morning News. He was a founding officer of Belo Interactive, Belo's network of news Web sites. He has served as Deputy Managing Editor of The Detroit News and Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, and managing editor of the Tribune Chronicle. Peskin's awards include NAA's Digital Edge Award for Pioneering Online Journalism, the Sigma Delta Chi Award, and four Gold medals from the Society for news Design. He was part of the team at The Detroit News that won the Pulitzer Prize. < Website: http://www.newdirectionsfornews.com/ >

John Poole: Producing, shooting and editing video, panoramic images, and multimedia news and features for Camera Works, John Poole has been a multimedia producer at washingtonpost.com for the last three years. Previously, he was a writer, editor and producer for the arts and entertainment sections of the site, and made electronic books at the Voyager Company and Penguin Books in New York. <Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/photo>

Laura Ruel: Executive Director fo the Edward W. Estlow International Center for Journalism and New Media at the University of Denver School of Communication. Laura is also an instructor in the department of Mass Communications and Journalism Studies. Before coming to DU in October 2000, she worked for more than 15 years in journalism as a reporter, editor, designer and manager at a number of newspapers and magazines including the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the Omaha World-Herald, and the Denver Rocky Mountain News. <Website: http://estlowcenter.du.edu/>

John Schott: Director - Media Studies Program, Carleton College. John's teaching concentrations are in film history and theory, Television Studies and Digital Culture. He also teaches Video Production and Web Design. He has been at Carleton since 1979. In addition to his teaching responsibilities he has also served as Executive Producer of the PBS series "Alive From Off Center," founding Executive Director of the Independent Television Service, and co-director, editor and / or Executive Producer of numerous documentaries and programs for PBS including "American Photography: A Century of Images" for which he was also the creative director of the website. < Website: http://www.carleton.edu/ >

Jane Ellen Stevens: Jane Ellen Stevens is a freelance multimedia journalist, specializing in science and technology. She does most of her work for Discovery Online and MSNBC.com. She has been a videojournalist for New York Times Television's Science Times unit. As a freelancer, she’s written for magazines such as National Geographic and Discover. She founded a science and technology news feature service that provided stories to 20 metropolitan newspapers worldwide, and lived in Kenya and Indonesia while running and writing for the service. During her newspaper career, she worked for the Boston Globe and the San Francisco Examiner as an editor and reporter. View her "Russian Space Camp" project at Discovery.com and read her story in the Online Journalism Review on convergence and the new multimedia backpack journalist. <Website: http://journalism.berkeley.edu/>

Matt Thueson: At Minnesota Public Radio, Matt is currently working on restructuring how news content is organized and presented to MPR's online news audience. He also works with radio reporters and editors to find ways to integrate broadcast and Web content. <Website: http://www.mpr.org/>

Lisa Valdez worked as an interpreter and translator for about 15 years for various companies. She was a research assistant at teh Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars at the Smithsonian Institution. At Michigan Tehnological University, Lisa was assistant director of the arts/humanities computer lab and the video production lab. Currently she is the coordinator of the visualization and digital imaging lab at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, a high techn environment that is user-friendly for the development of creative visual, audio and sensory information. <Website: http://www.d.umn.edu/vdil/>

Ashley Wells: Interactive Producer - MSNBC.com Ashley's job is to get people to play with their news. Ashley has worked in New York and Los Angeles in TV news and freelance graphic design. Ashley has a degree in broadcast journalism from Pepperdine University. < Website: http://www.MSNBC.com >

Behind the Scenes:

Brandy Lietz: INMS Program Associate - Event Coordinator/Video Brandy is the Program Associate for the Institute for New Media Studies. She came to the Institute in March 2001 from the University of Minnesota, Crookston campus where she was the sports information director. She graduated from the University of Minnesota, Crookston but continues her learning in new media technologies through courses and continuing education. Brandy is in charge of coordinating the Institute's convenings, creating and overseeing the website and publications, and editing the New Media Networker.

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